Thy Hundred-Gated Capitals? or Thofe
Where Three Days Travel left us much to ride
Gazing on Miracles by Mortals wrought,
Arches triumphal, Theatres immense,

Or nodding Gardens pendent in Mid Air ?
Or Temples proud to meet their GODS Half-way?
Yet Thofe affect us in no common Kind;
What then the Force of fuch fuperior Scenes?
Enter a Temple, it will strike an Awe;

What Awe from This the DEITY has built?
A Good Man feen, tho' filent, Counsel gives;
The touch'd Spectator wishes to be Wife:
In a bright Mirror His own Hands have made,
Here we see Something like the Face of GOD:
Seems it not then enough, to say, LORENZO!
To Man abandon'd,

86 Haft thou feen the Skies ?”
AND yet, fo thwarted Nature's kind Design,
By daring Man, he makes her facred Awe,
That Guard from Ill, his Shelter, his Temptation
To more than common Guilt, and quite inverts
Celestial Art's Intent: The trembling Stars
See Crimes gigantic, ftalking thro' the Gloom
With Front erect, that hide their Head by Day,
And making Night ftill darker by their Deeds:
Slumb'ring in Covert, till the Shades defcend,
Rapine, and Murder, link'd, now prowl for Prey:
The Mifer earths his Treasure; and the Thief,
Watching the Mole, half-beggars him e'er Morn;
Now Plots, and foul Confpiracies, awake;
And, muffling up their Horrors from the Moon,
Havock, and Devaftation, they prepare,
And Kingdoms tott'ring in the Field of Blood
Now Sons of Riot in Mid-Revel rage:
What fhall I do?-fupprefs it? or proclaim?-
Why fleeps the Thunder? Now, LORENZO! now,
His best Friend's Couch the rank Adulterer

Afcends

Afcends fecure and laughs at Gods, and Men:
Prepoft'rous Madmen, void of Fear or Shame,
Lay their Crimes bare to these chaste Eyes of Heav'n;
Yet fhrink, and fhudder, at a Mortal's Sight.
Were Moon, and Stars, for Villains only made?
To guide, yet screen them, with tenebrious Light?
No; they were made to fashion the Sublime
Of human Hearts, and wifer make the Wife.

THOSE Ends were anfwer'd once; when Mortals liv'd Of Stronger Wing, of Aquiline Afcent;

In Theory Sublime: O how unlike

Those Vermin of the Night, (this Moment fung)
Who crawl on Earth, and on her Venom feed?
Those ancient Sages, Human Stars! They met.
Their Brothers of the Skies, at Midnight-Hour;
Their Counsel afk'd; and, what they afk'd, obey'd
The Stagyrite; and Plato; He who drank
The poison'd Bowl; and He of Tusculum ;
With him of Corduba (immortal Names !);
In these Unbounded, and Elyfian, Walks,
An Area fit for GoDs, and Godlike Men,
They took their nightly Round, thro' radiant Paths
By Seraphs trod; inftructed, chiefly, thus,
To tread in Their bright Footsteps here Below;
To walk in Worth ftill brighter than the Skies:
There, they contracted their Contempt of Earth;
Of Hopes eternal kindled, There, the Fire;
There, as in near Approach, they glow'd, and grew
(Great Vifitants!) more intimate with GOD,
More worth to Men, more joyous to Themfelves:
Thro' various Virtues, they, with Ardor, ran
The Zodiac of their learn'd, illuftrious Lives.
In Chriftian Hearts, O for a Pagan Zeal!
A needful, but opprobrious Pray'r! As much
Our Ardor Lefs, as Greater is our Light:
How monftrous This in Morals? Scarce more strange

Would

Would this Phænomenon in Nature strike,
A Sun, that froze us, or a Star, that warm'd.

WHAT taught these Heroes of the Moral World? To These thou giv'ft thy Praise, give Credit too; These Doctors ne'er were penfion'd to deceive thee; And Pagan Tutors are thy Tafte.-They taught, That, Narrow Views betray to Misery; That, Wife it is to comprehend the Whole; That, Virtue rofe from Nature, ponder'd well; The fingle Base of Virtue built to Heav'n; That GOD, and Nature, our Attention claim; That, Nature is the Glafs reflecting GOD, As, by the Sea, reflected is the Sun, Too glorious to be gaz'd on in his Sphere; That, Mind, immortal, loves immortal Aims; That, boundless Mind affects a boundless Space: That, Vaft Surveys, and the Sublime of Things, The Soul affimilate, and make her Great; That, therefore, Heav'n her Glories, as a Fund Of Inspiration, thus spreads out to Man. Such are their Doctrines; Such the Night infpir'd. AND what more True? What Truth of greater

Weight?

The Soul of Man was made to walk the Skies
Delightful Outlet of her Prifon Here!

There, difincumber'd from her Chains, the Ties
Of Toys terreftrial, fhe can rove at large;
There, freely can respire, dilate, extend,
In full Proportion let loose all her Pow'rs;
And, undeluded, grafp at fomething Great:
Nor, as a Stranger, does the wander There ;
But, wonderful Herfelf, thro' Wonders ftrays;
Contemplating their Grandeur, finds her own;
Dives deep in their Oeconomy divine,
Sits high in Judgment on their various Laws,
And, like a Master, judges not amifs:

Hence, greatly pleas'd, and justly proud, the Soul
Grows confcious of her Birth celeftial; breathes
More Life, more Vigour, in her native Air;
And feels herself at home among the Stars;
And, feeling, emulates her Country's Praise.
WHAT call we, then, the Firmament, LORENZO!-
As Earth the Body, fince, the Skies fuftain
The Soul with Food, that gives immortal Life,
Call it, The noble Pasture of the Mind,

Which there expatiates, ftrengthens, and exults,
And riots thro' the Luxuries of Thought:
Call it, The Garden of the DEITY,

Bloffom'd with Stars, redundant in the Growth
Of Fruit ambrofial; moral Fruit to Man:
Call it, The Breaft-plate of the true High-Prieft,
Ardent with Gems oracular, that give,

In Points of higheft Moment, right Response ;
And ill-neglected, if we prize our Peace.
THUS, have we found a true Aitrology ;
Thus have we found a new, and noble, Senfe,
In which alone Stars govern human Fates:
O that the Stars (as fome have feign'd) let fall
Bloodshed, and Havock, on embattled Realms,
And refcu'd Monarchs from fo black a Guilt!
BOURBON! this With how gen'rous in a Foe?
Wouldst thou be Great, wouldft thou become a God,
And ftick thy deathlefs Name among the Stars,
For mighty Conquefts on a Needle's Point?
Instead of Forging Chains for Foreigners,
Bafile thy Tutor: Grandeur All thy Aim?

As
yet
thou know'it not what it is: How Great,
How Glorious, then, appears the Mind of Man,
When in it All the Stars, and Planets, roll?
And what it seems, it is: Great Objects make
Great Minds, enlarging as their Views enlarge;
Thofe ftill more Godlike, as These more Divine.

AND

AND more divine than Thefe, thou canst not fee: Dazzled, o'erpower'd, with the delicious Draught Of miscellaneous Splendors, how I reel From Thought to Thought, inebriate, without End? An Eden, This! a PARADISE un-loft!

I meet the DEITY in ev'ry View,

And tremble at my Nakedness before Him!
O that I could but reach the Tree of Life!
For Here it grows, unguarded from our Tafte;
No Flaming-Sword denies our Entrance Here;
Would Man but gather, he might live for ever.

LORENZO much of Moral haft thou feen:
Of curious Arts art thou more fond? Then mark
The Mathematic Glories of the Skies:
In Number, Weight, and Meafure, All ordain'd;
LORENZO'S boafted Builders, Chance, and Fate,
Are left to finish his aerial Tow'rs;

Wisdom, and Choice, their well-known Characters
Here deep imprefs; and claim it for their Own:
Tho' fplendid All, no Splendor void of Use;
Ufe rivals Beauty; Art contends with Pow'r;
No wanton Waste, amid effufe Expence ;
The Great OECONOMIST adjufting All
To prudent Pomp, magnificently Wife:
How rich the Profpect! and for ever New!
And newest to the Man that views it most;
For Newer ftill in Infinite fucceeds:

Then, Thefe aerial Racers, O how Swift?
How the Shaft loiters from the strongest String!
Spirit Alone can distance the Career.

Orb above Orb ascending without End!

Circle in Circle, without End, inclos'd!

Wheel within Wheel, EZEKIEL! like to Thine!
Like Thine, it seems a Vifion, or a Dream;
Tho' Seen, we labour to believe it true!

What Involution! What Extent! What Swarms